After cleaning the internal organs and rinsing away the blood, Su Qingluan did not rush to scrape the fish scales. Instead, she crushed the ginger slices and cut the green onions into sections, soaked them in water, and rubbed them vigorously to make green onion and ginger water. She then put the crushed green onions and ginger directly into the water to soak out more flavor.
Turning around, she carefully scraped off the scales of the mandarin fish with a copper knife.
The reason why it is described as "cautious" is because the dorsal fin of the mandarin fish is very sharp and it is easy to prick your fingers if you are not careful.
In her previous life, Su Qingluan was injured while handling sea fish, which caused the wound to become infected and festered, and she had to have an IV drip, which caused her a lot of suffering.
However, she was lucky at that time, but there were no antibiotics in that era. If it caused a bacterial infection, suppuration and fever would be minor matters. If it turned into sepsis, she would definitely die of a cold!
Therefore, in order to avoid being pricked by the sharp dorsal fin, Su Qingluan was extremely careful with every move, fearing she would get scratched. Yang, who was standing beside her, asked worriedly, "Daya, if you've forgotten how to make that 'squirrel mandarin fish', I'll just steam it."
Su Qingluan's mouth twitched: "Mother, don't worry, I know what to do. I'm just afraid of the dorsal fin pricking my hand."
As she spoke, Su Qingluan finally scraped the fish scales clean and rinsed it again with clean water.
Since the fish head needed to be shaped separately, Su Qingluan chopped off the entire fish head about an inch below the gills.
Yang happened to see Su Qingluan chopping the fish head and quickly said, "Hey, just chop off the head. There's still a large piece of the fish body attached to it. Wouldn't it be a waste to chop it all off?"
Su Qingluan smiled mysteriously: "Don't worry, mother, it won't be wasted. I'll definitely find something useful after chopping it off."
As she spoke, she carefully cut off the complete fish head according to the position of the gills, and used the part where the fish meat and the body were connected as the "base", so that the fish head could be inserted into the "base" with the mouth facing upwards, giving it a very three-dimensional feeling.
Yang's eyes lit up: "Hey, don't tell me, looking at the fish head like it's about to jump out of the water!"
Su Qingluan nodded with a smile: "That's right, the fish head at this angle is beautiful and won't collapse."
After seeing Su Qingluan show off her skills, Yang was completely relieved. She turned around and went back to making noodles and busy herself with other dishes.
After Su Qingluan arranged the fish head into the shape of "looking up at the stars", she turned around and began to prepare the fish body.
The squirrel mandarin fish needed two "fish steaks" on both sides, and the fish bone in the middle needed to be shaved off. So she held the fish's tail with one hand and took the knife with the other, slicing off the two fish steaks little by little from the tail to the head. But she stopped when she was about to reach the top, otherwise the two fish steaks would separate from the main spine.
The main spine is naturally not needed. After Su Qingluan sliced the fish fillets on both sides, she cut off the bone in the middle just below the connection between the two fish fillets and the main spine.
"Mother, I don't need this mandarin fish bone. Do you want to make soup with it?" Su Qingluan turned around and asked Yang who was working on another stove, holding the mandarin fish bone.
"Just put it there," Yang turned around, "I'll use the fish bones and pickled bacon broth to make noodle soup base later!" Yang responded with a smile.
Su Qingluan put all the sliced pieces in a small bowl so that her mother could use them later.
Next comes one of the difficult parts of cooking “Squirrel Mandarin Fish” – the slicing knife.
Su Qingluan first unfolded one side of the fish fillet, and used a knife to cut it diagonally into slices about as thick as a finger. However, each time the slices could not be separated from the whole fillet. Every time she cut to the end, she had to turn the piece of fish fillet over like turning a book. In this way, she could clearly see whether she had cut the fish skin or whether there was any place that was accidentally cut.
While cutting, Su Qingluan said to Yang: "Mother, if you take anything from me, please be careful not to touch me, or it will be cut!"
Yang smiled and said, "You're keeping your heart in your stomach. Forget about anything else. I'm just afraid you'll cut your hand. I can't touch you when you're cutting, right?"
Su Qingluan knew that her mother was a serious person and would definitely do what she promised. She couldn't help but think of her past life's mischievous friends.
She had originally wanted to learn this particular squirrel mandarin fish dish, and she would cook three or five fish a day just to practice the knife skills. But her friends would always jump out and scare her when she was almost done, under the pretext of "training Su Qingluan's mental toughness and stability."
Even though Su Qingluan had a good temper, she still turned the table over with this group of bad friends.
Later, these people willingly served as "experimental subjects" for Su Qingluan's cooking skills countless times. They ate squirrel mandarin fish until they vomited, and then jointly gave her a set of high-end cooking utensils and kitchen utensils she had always dreamed of. This made her calm down.
Coming out of her memories, Su Qingluan realized that the mandarin fish in her hand had been sliced into pieces without her noticing. She would then make cross-cutting cuts in the fish flesh, turning the fillets into strips while still keeping the tops connected to the skin.
After all the cutting techniques were completed, Su Qingluan carefully placed the fish meat into the onion and ginger water that she had kneaded for half a day to remove the fishy smell and add flavor.
Turning around, she went to mix some mung bean starch water and prepared some dry starch.
Su Qingluan was so focused on carving the fish that she didn't notice that Yang had taken the bones. After Su Qingluan prepared the water starch and dry starch separately, she could smell the delicious aroma of fish soup filling the room.
"This fish soup smells so good!" Su Qingluan raised her nose and took a sniff, "Maybe white pepper was added to it?" Otherwise, no matter how delicious the fish soup is, it cannot cover up the fishy smell.
Yang smiled and said, "I knew I couldn't hide it from your nose, but it's not just white pepper. Why don't you smell it again?"
After hearing what Yang said, Su Qingluan raised her nose and sniffed again, then turned her head and asked, "Salted pork?"
Yang nodded and said, "We need to prepare more pickled bacon. It tastes good in stir-fries and stews!" As she spoke, she sprinkled some salt into the fish soup, which had already turned slightly white, to adjust the taste.
She looked at the color of the soup and muttered, "It's strange. Daya, why is your fish soup always so white? I stewed it for such a long time, but it's only a slightly cloudy white."
Su Qingluan smiled and said, "Mother, next time you use fish bones to make soup, deep-fry them first so they can be whiter. I discovered a long time ago that foods that are fried first tend to become milky white when cooked into soup."
Su Qingluan only told her the result, which made Yang give up the idea of asking her the reason. Otherwise, unless she explained the concept of "emulsification" clearly, it would be impossible to explain why the soup would be whiter after the fried ingredients.
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